


The Scars That Come At Night

by AU_Writer



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: "battle" scars, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, emotional Ezra, emotional scars, reminiscent Zeb, shoulder-to-cry-on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 04:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12161856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AU_Writer/pseuds/AU_Writer
Summary: Zeb and Ezra share a bonding moment when Zeb realizes that they both have invisible scars that have changed who they are, after Ezra having a nightmare wakes a grumpy Lasat.Set after the episode where Ezra learns that his parents are dead.





	The Scars That Come At Night

**Author's Note:**

> This was suggested by a guest on my fanfiction account. Hope you guys enjoy the emotional feels of this!

     Zeb was usually a sound sleeper, nothing could rouse him…not after Lasan. That battle had changed him, in both good ways and bad. He drank sooo much, too much, after that war…that nightmare…and he was so tired after all of the fighting…the planet was destroyed…his home…was gone… He collapsed, and nothing could rouse him—not until several days later…

     Tonight was not the night of that bloodbath though, and yet Zeb still felt that same sense of urgency. He felt something pulling at him, urging him to get up—to wake up—something was wrong! Rather grumpily, he opened his eyes—refusing to get up until he knew what the “danger” was. He expected to see Chopper about to electrocute him for fun or sabotage the kid’s bed to tick him off…but there was no Chopper…strange.

     A moment later, as Zeb was drifting back off to sleep, he heard a thump from the bunk above his. The feeling of urgency resurfaced. “Ezra, stop wallowing around up there! You’re keeping me up!” Zeb growled in a low, clearly frustrated tone. That kid had no respect whatsoever for war veterans!

     “No…” Ezra moaned back, sounding half-drunk with sleep. Zeb could hear him shift in the bed above.

     Zeb’s blood was boiling. How could the kid live with being so rude?! “Listen here you Loth-” Zeb’s voice faltered when he lifted himself to pummel the kid and saw him curled up in a ball…

_Zeb saw the Lasat boy, given his father’s bo-rifle. He was too young to fight, but he had to protect his mother and sister! The boy never got the chance… A disrupter destroyed his home, killing what was left of his family, and throwing Zeb a good distance away. When Zeb came to, his home-world was gone. Fire and smoke covered everything, the Imperials were gone now but they had taken almost all the life of this world with them… There lay the body of the Lasat boy, roughly about Ezra’s age… He lay there, curled in a ball, covered in his own blood…the boy had cried himself to sleep…to death. All alone and abandoned on a battlefield, he lost hope…he gave up trying to live and let himself bleed to death while he mourned those he loved… Zeb let out a roar of frustration, regret, and mourning. It wasn’t fair! He was just a child! An innocent child with a nice family! He could have lived a full life…he could have died happy…_

Zeb looked at Ezra and he couldn’t help but see the Lasat boy. Ezra shook with silent sobs, the Lasat boy had died with puffy eyes…he’d been crying too. It wasn’t fair for something like this to happen to kids…life was never fair, but that didn’t mean one couldn’t try to make it fairer for the children they loved…right?

     “Mom...I—don’t…make …me…hide…..I can fight too……I can be…like…daddy…..I can be brave too…” Ezra continued to mumble in his sleep. “I’m…not…scared…..I promise…..I can be brave…..I’ll show those…Imperials what makes…a Bridger…a Bridger…” Another few moments a silent, choked sobs and then the heartbreaking line hit Zeb like one of the disruptors that destroyed his home-world, “Don’t leave me!”

     The seasoned Lasat warrior couldn’t take it anymore. If he listened to Ezra’s mumbling any longer, then he might cry for the second time in his miserable life…the first and currently only being after the fall of Lasan. Zeb gently shook the kid’s shoulder, feeling unusually sympathetic to the kid…it felt wrong.

     Ezra bolted upright, panicking at the contact. “What?! Zeb? What going on?” He asked, talking quickly…Zeb could hear the fear of the nightmare still in Ezra’s voice.

     “You were mumbling in your sleep.” Zeb stated, not really sure where to go with it. He wasn’t exactly the best at outwardly expressing emotions.

     “Sorry to wake you.” Ezra hissed, moving to lay back down and try to go back to sleep. Zeb doubted that he would.

     Zeb placed his hand on Ezra’s shoulder again, causing the kid to turn and look at him with uncertainty. “I know it’s hard…” Zeb sighed heavily, “losing your parents must have felt a lot like losing my world…it’s not something anyone your age should have ever had to go through…I’m sorry.”

     Ezra had been caught off guard. His protective wall of sarcastic and rude comments broke like a dam, pouring out the emotional sea it held in. Tears formed in Ezra’s eyes. He’d already cried several times after learning that his parents were dead, and then Zeb was actually nice to him for once?...Zeb was actually giving him support?

     The kid buried himself in Zeb’s shoulder and sobbed. Zeb had heard of how Ezra had reacted when Rider had told him that his parents were gone…the kid had leaned on Kanan, depended on him for support. Now he was relying on Zeb to support him. Zeb was never good at all that emotional junk, but there was one thing that he did understand...the wounds left behind by the monsters like the Empire…the wounds would heal over time…the wounds that would become—battle scars.

**Author's Note:**

> I cried like five times writing this! You better have cried too! :'(  
> Poor Zeb and Ezra... I hate to do this to them, but I like how it turned out so they can just get over it.


End file.
